Delhi’s Belly

“I was born in Chandigarh,” says Nair,as he connects over the phone from Hamburg,Germany,where he is busy promoting his first feature film,Delhi In a Day,which releases in India on August 24. Previously,Nair’s first short film,Max & Helena was part of an official selection at over 35 festivals,and in January,he was selected as one of the four finalists for the Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaking award.

“I have always been passionate about cinema. To me,it’s a perfect collaboration of all mediums,” says Nair,a successful social media entrepreneur who turned to filmmaking in 2009. He studied at the New York Film Institute and has trained extensively in post-production. Now a French citizen,who lives between Berlin and Mumbai,he’s gearing up for the release of Delhi in a Day in India.

A comic-drama with music by Mathias Duplessy (who gave the score for Peepli [Live) the film,says Nair,examines class differences in the context of a nouveau riche family in the Capital. “I have spent a lot of time in Delhi and was always intrigued by how the upper class treat their staff and take them for granted,” he says. However,he opted to portray his story in a lighter vein. “I prefer humour and wit to deliver the message and make it a combination of emotions,nothing exaggerated or shocking,” he explains.

The film has been an official selection at over 20 international film festivals. At the New York Indian Film Festival 2012,it was nominated for Best Director and Best Actress awards. At Cincinnati Film Festival in 2011,Delhi in a Day won an award for best screenplay and an honourable mention for its director. It also bagged the Best Feature Film Jury Award at the Indian Film Festival,Houston,in 2011.

Starring British actor Lee Williams,along with an Indian cast comprising Kulbhushan Kharbanda,Lillete Dubey,Victor Banerjee,Anjali Patil and Vidya Bhushan,the film observes one day in a Delhi household through the eyes of a foreign guest,played by Williams. As he is drawn into household dynamics,he discovers that his presence has upset the usual order of things and that his first day in Delhi might just prove to be more than he had bargained for.

“A film should be positive without being preachy. It’s important to keep it authentic,true to the dialect and language,and yet retain the universality of the story,” says Nair,who is writing the screenplay and story for Bloody Veer,Bollywood’s first mainstream vampire film. He’s also developing his second feature film Umrika,which was selected for Mumbai Mantra Sundance Screenwriting Lab 2012. The story is set in a small village in India and explores the “myth and motivation” of the American dream.